These findings reveal a previously unrecognized function of p53 in anti-apoptosis and identify that the inhibition of p53 or AKT has a potential as therapeutics for specifically targeting ALT cancers.
Overexpression of Akt1 was more frequent than that of Akt2 in well-differentiated liposarcoma (6/7 versus 3/7 cases) and schwannoma (4/4 versus 1/4 cases), whereas Akt2 overexpression and Akt activation were more frequent than Akt1 overexpression in malignant nerve sheath (3/4 and 4/4, respectively, versus 2/4 cases) and muscular tumors (8/9 and 8/9 versus 4/9 cases).